Everybody has his or her own daily routine. Maybe it’s wake up, shower, eat breakfast, apply makeup, change clothes, and run out the door to work. Then return home, eat dinner, and watch Netflix until you take off your makeup and go to bed. It might seem simple enough, maybe even tedious and mundane because it’s the same thing every day, but, whether you know it or not, your daily routine might be more exciting than you think! In that… it could be positively riddled with habits that seem innocuous on the surface but are actually quite detrimental to you.

That’s right! Things you do every single day of your life might be doing more harm than good, either mentally or physically. But don’t be alarmed! At least you can fix it fairly quickly! Once you recognize the patterns that are having a negative impact on your life, you are aware and ready to change them for a better, stronger you.

If you are constantly striving to improve your life and yourself, go ahead and check out the fifteen things you should definitely not be doing every single day! You’ll find that you’ll be happier and healthier in no time by just adjusting your routine and habits.

15 Taking a nice hot shower

Upon hearing this, fellow shower haters might go, “YES!” fists pumping in the air as they prepare to launch themselves into the other room and yell at naggers, “IN YO FACE!” On the other hand, people who love cleanliness (the ones being yelled at) will probably weep in despair--but turns out it’s true. Showering every day is not good for your health, it’s merely a societal norm. Frequent showers not only waste water but also irritate the skin by stripping it of its natural oil and making it more vulnerable to contracting infections and the like. You are even getting rid of good bacteria! Don’t despair, though! There are other means to keeping clean. Washing key points of your body like the armpits and groin area with a damp wash cloth can be enough, and there are hair products that work to keep your hair less oily on your off days. And there’s also the bidet...

14 Wear high heels

High feels are fab, for sure, and they add to both the posture and height--but they also hurt like hell and are super uncomfortable. At times like these, you should really listen to your body! High heels should only be worn maybe a couple hours a day and definitely not every day. They can lead to a lot of serious body issues. They shift your weight to the front so there’s a lot of pressure in the front of your body, leading to bone and nerve damage. These killer shoes are also bad overall for your muscles, tendons, hips, knees, calves, and lower back. They can make your body feel and look uneven, especially as one heel gets worn out more than the other. Sure, they look great on but another result from too much wear are undesirable spider veins. Lastly, the shoes may boost your posture while you’re wearing them, but when you’re not, your actual posture will severely suffer! Go for comfort!

13 Wear contacts all day e’ry day

A lot of people wear contacts all day if they don’t like their eyeglasses, but it’s actually not so good to wear them so often. They should really be worn for about eight hours a day, and you should probably take a day or two off in a week. Many people put them on after waking up and take them off before sleeping every single day. Some people even wear them to sleep! But that’s really not great for your eyes and can ultimately lead to damage. Your cornea needs oxygen, but the contact covers it up entirely. If worn for too long, the contact essentially suffocates the cornea and worsens your eyesight. In extreme cases, wearing contacts for too long can lead to loss of eyesight. Many people also suffer through the dryness and irritability resulting from the contacts, but your eyes deserve to be treated better!

12 Put your hair in a ponytail

THE HORROR! As somebody who hates hair (hair tickling my neck, hair getting windswept, hair rubbing up against my already oily face), ponytails are miraculous--my go-to hairstyle that enables me to just get it all out of the way so I can do things peacefully and comfortably. So imagine the horror when I found out that ponytails are pretty bad for you, especially on a daily basis… And I might not like hair gettin’ in the way of everything, but what I dislike even more is the idea of balding. Turns out, according to a scientist, that ponytails might lead to temporary hair loss…at first. If you chronically put your hair into a ponytail, it can become permanent. I’ve already heard the terms “five-head” and “receding hairline”; I don’t need to hear “bald by 50”…and therefore, I say my tearful farewells to ponytails.

11 Multitask

You see it time and again--especially when looking for jobs. There’s great importance placed on the ability to multitask--but it’s actually not a good trait at all. It’s bad for both the employee and the company, actually. Multitasking has been discovered to be bad for the brain because the brain does not function well at covering more than one task at a time. It’s ineffective because all the brain does is go back and forth between little tasks in short bursts, which might even lower the IQ by ten points! It’s also just not as efficient as it may seem; it gives the sense of accomplishment over every little task done, leading to the multitasker continuously seeking little tasks to complete with the feeling of getting a lot done, when actually there’s a bigger task at hand that is being ignored. Splitting the attention into so many tiny pieces cannot be good for the mind and for the focus, and it certainly doesn’t get as much done as people may think!

10 Sleeping and waking up whenever you feel like it

In this case, it’s actually good to incorporate a more rigid routine. Most people go to bed when they feel like it or after accomplishing all the things they have to do in a day, but this is actually not good. It’s better to get into the routine of going to bed at the same time every night. If the heart knows when the body is going to rest, the heart will do a better job at getting rid of the stress hormones while you sleep. That’s just how it works! That’s why if your sleep schedule is all over the place, the heart has a harder time with it because the schedule is so unpredictable, leading to higher risk of heart disease. The same goes for waking up at the same time. Try to be more regular with your sleeping pattern!

9 Use your phone before bed

It’s so easy to just lie back in your bed and relax while on your phone (working out your arms as you try very hard not to let it fall on your face). You scroll through your social media feeds, look at the news, watch YouTube, etc.--but this is actually a really bad habit that has to be stopped. It’s so hard to break free from it, but using your phone before your bed disrupts your ability to fall asleep. Although it may not specifically cause these problems, people who do use their phone before sleep have been revealed to suffer from insomnia and fatigue more often. Studies show that the light emitted from the phones could disrupt the hormone melatonin from being released, keeping the brain wide awake instead of letting it drift off into pleasant sheepland. Instead of picking up your phone, opt for reading a book when in bed!

8 Doubt yourself

Be more confident! You, especially as a woman in a man’s world, could use more confidence, so don’t doubt yourself. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake--and then you learn from it, which is key. Doubting yourself is counterproductive in so many ways. It leads to wishy washy indecisiveness and staying complacent. Instead of thinking you can’t do it or you’re not good enough, be more assertive--and that doesn’t mean you have to be a bad person. Instead, empower yourself with small changes like saying “sorry” less! Replace it with “thank you.” For example, instead of apologizing for being late, thank the other party for waiting for you. Another tip is to do the Wonder Woman power pose! You can do it for just a few minutes alone, and you’ll feel like a superhero.

7 Apply heat to hair

Many people know this, but they still do it anyway! Girls, you are killing your hair! But it’s not only from the curling irons and the straightening irons--it’s also from blow drying your hair. That’s right! If you listen to the first advice, you shouldn’t need to be blow drying your hair every day, anyway, and that’ll certainly help, but let me drill this home: you should really not be blow drying your hair that often. This is hard for me personally during winter because it’s so cold and my head feels like it’s going to get sick in an instant when my hair is wet, but it really is better and healthier for your hair to let it air dry. You could also consider getting a moisturizing product for your hair to help you avoid those pesky split ends and irreparable damage.

6 Leave your bed a mess

If you ever bemoan the lack of productivity in your life, here’s a good tip! Stop leaving your bed a mess after you wake up! Sure, it begs the question why bother when you’re just going to mess it up again later at night, but many people have suggested that (in a feng shui-like fashion) that leaving your bed a mess leaves your mind a mess for the rest of the day! To declutter your mind and feel more motivated to do things, you should make sure you make the bed, and that will start a chain reaction of productivity for the rest of your day. It’s not hard to make the bed--that first moment of laziness will haunt you for the next 12 hours or so; hence, make sure you avoid that by doing the simple deed of tidying up!

5 Talk over someone

Listening is something that surprisingly a lot of people fail at. You’d think it’d be easy enough, but a lot of people merely “hear” things; they don’t really “listen” to what the other person is saying. Everyone, myself included, just wait for that perfect moment or pause of breath to jump in with his or her own story or comments. That’s why you have to develop a habit, because good listeners are truly appreciated, and for good reason. It’s also good for you to open your ears to new perspectives and situations. Instead of talking over somebody, which happens all the time, try to just keep your mouth closed and really take in what the other person is saying. Trust me, he or she will really appreciate it, and you’ll get something out of it yourself!

4 Sweat the small stuff

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in a day, especially when you have a long list of stuff you want to do or you’re just sick of the same things day in and day out. It’s easy to let yourself into all the pressure and stress of daily life--but you really shouldn’t. The stress is bad for you--mentally, emotionally, physically, you name it. To avoid feeling all that stress, usually over trivial things that just wear you out when combined together, you should really take on healthier habits like meditation or a simple exercise to get all that dopamine flowing. Both activities are recommended daily, usually for as short as 15 minutes each! They don’t take up that much time, and you deserve to have a bit of that me-time every day. If you let stress get to you, it can be really bad for your health, resulting in fatigue, depression, heart problems, and more!

3 Wear excessive makeup

Gurl, embrace your inner beauty--and bare face! It’s important to give your skin a break, so make sure you don’t go full-on makeup mode every single day of the week. You don’t have to do full coverage foundation, contouring, highlighting, eyeshadow--heck even eyeliner--every single day! There are times you really need a break and to remember that you don’t need all of that product to feel beautiful. It’s important for not only your skin but also your mind to take a breather. If anything, just apply some CC cream or sunscreen and lipstick, top that off with perfect eyebrows, and voila! You’re done and still lookin’ sweet. Just as important as it is to let your eyes breathe from contacts once in a while, it’s important to let your skin breathe and to remind yourself to be confident regardless of how much makeup you’re wearing. Lookin’ gorgeous!

2 Sit all day

It’s so hard not to sit on you bum all day long--especially if you have a desk job--but try your best not to do this, because it’s actually really bad for your body! It puts a lot of pressure on the lumbar area and makes you more vulnerable to diseases like colon cancer, over productive pancreas, and heart disease. Sitting all day can also negatively impact your muscles and legs. Try to either get a desk that lets you stand or an exercise ball you can sit on rather than a solid chair! Make sure you do some stretches and brief but frequent walks so as not to get stuck in that sitting position all day. Be as active as you possibly can! If you work all day at a desk, then don’t continue sitting when you get home!

1 Do a face mask every day

People might think “the more the better,” especially when it comes to things that are supposed to be good for you--but there’s also such a thing as “too much of a good thing.” You need to find a happy medium. Not only is it super expensive to do a face mask everyday but also it’s not as effective as you may think or hope. Most products recommend you use them two or three times a week. If you use them too much, especially the clay or mud types, you could face adverse effects. If you have oily skin, the face masks strip your face of its natural oil, which could cause your skin to try to overcompensate by producing even more oil. Hello, shine! It’s of course very bad for those with sensitive and dry skin as the masks can be irritable when overused. Even moisturizing packs won’t do that good a job if used that often (watch that money go down the drain). Quality over quantity!

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